More and more spinal surgery

Doctors reach for back pain too quickly to the scalpel?

13.12.2012

The number of spinal operations is steadily increasing. Frequently, other procedures such as orthopedic pain therapy, physiotherapy or osteopathy help better in back pain than surgical procedures. The fact that doctors are increasingly resorting to the scalpel could be due to the more advanced diagnostic procedures and the better compensation.

Eight in ten Germans suffer from spine problems
According to the AOK, the number of spinal surgery has doubled in recent years. „From a medical point of view, the increase in back surgeries on this scale to more than 280,000 operations last year is incomprehensible, "explains Professor Joachim Grifka, founding president of the German Society for Orthopedics and Orthopedic Surgery and Director of the Orthopedic Clinic at the University of Regensburg.

In the meantime, eight out of ten Germans suffer from back pain requiring treatment. 25.8 percent of the sick leave are due to pain in the spine. Overall, back problems cause 50 million days lost at work and 18 percent of early retirement in Germany. According to experts, the main cause of back pain is lack of exercise and one-sided stress, such as long and constant sitting in the workplace. The result is overloads and signs of wear. It is therefore not surprising that herniated discs are among the 20 most common diagnoses in medical practices.

Orthopedic pain therapy instead of spinal surgery
Grifka sees the increase in spinal surgery as critical: „Except for acute paralysis or cross-sectional symptoms, advanced orthopedic pain therapies without surgery can be helpful in treating back problems, even in severe pain. "Good treatment results could be achieved by means of targeted injections on the exiting nerves in the area of ​​the small vertebral joints or directly into the spinal canal. „The success rate of this minimally invasive treatment method is more than 80 percent, even with changes requiring surgery, "says the physician to the online report service „OBX Medicine Direct“. If an intervertebral disc surgery is still necessary, it would be possible to resort to microscope procedures that left no scarring.

„Who seeks, who finds“, is an old saying. The increase in operations could also be related to this. Because, according to the owner of the Chair of Orthopedics at the University of Regensburg, the diagnosis has improved greatly in recent years. "This allows us today to recognize early on changes in early diseases, but this is a blessing and a curse At the same time, for example, an examination with a magnetic resonance tomograph shows changes in the back that are not the cause of existing back pain and therefore not operated on would have to be, "says Grifka. Only about 33 percent of findings diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging would have to be treated in the fact. All other findings would have little medical significance.

Dear second opinion before surgery
But the fact is that far too often and too fast the scalpel is used. Proven conservative methods could help the patient without invasive treatment. "In some disciplines, such as neurosurgery, the option of treatment without surgery is often no longer considered today." The expert therefore advises patients not to leave the decision of an operation alone to the surgeon. It would be better to seek a second opinion and to discuss with the orthopedist the chances of an invasive, alternative or conservative treatment method. (Sb)

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Picture: Lothar Wandtner